In April this year, my wonderful mother came to visit me in Beijing. She hadn’t taken an international trip alone for a few years. Well, she hadn’t left Europe alone for something like 30 years. (Having kids changes things like that, I would think.) So she boarded a plane from Norwich to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to [...]
Tag: Women
“I’m just glad you don’t have to blow a Post Modernist”: Movember vs. NaBloPoMo
It's that time of year again. Yesterday was Halloween. Everybody who is anybody was (apparently) out celebrating, dressed up like idiots tonight. (I stuffed a towel up my striped t-shirt, wore a skirt over my boyfriend's jeans and stitched him a sweatband - we were Juno and Paulie, and I wasn't the only 'pregnant' costume at [...]
Open Mouths: Free speech in Burma?
‘Things will only change if she wins. If they let her in, there will be changes. If not, things will be stable.’ Pausing at a busy junction in downtown Yangon as I wait to cross, a heavy bag on my back, an older Burmese woman mutters under her breath telling me it is safe to [...]
We Should All Be Feminists: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of my favourite authors. She's certainly my favourite African author and I believe she is the best female writer of our time. Her fiction is poetic and hugely powerful. She weaves enchanting and wonderfully moving stories about the reality of Nigerian life. Adichie was named one of the twenty most important fiction writers [...]
Does having leg hair make me less of a woman?
Last week I shaved my legs for the first time in 9 months. Why? I wanted to see if it made me feel like more or less of a woman.
What is it with China and women? International Women’s Day 2015
The 1995 incident was echoed this year: While many women were being distracted with a shower of sexism and unnecessary gifts, Chinese feminist activists were arrested and held over International Women’s Day without cause. Ten women were detained on Friday and Saturday, and five were still being held in custody on Monday.
25 Things I Did Instead of Getting Married at 25
The very fact that it is non-essential for the majority of people is possibly the most powerful element of modern marriage. Rather than becoming insignificant, it possibly means more than it once did, purely because it is so heavily reliant on individual choice.
What do Punk girl bands, hangovers and radical feminist texts have in common? Valentine’s Day 2015
The highlight of last year’s Valentine’s was the Friday night adventure of a housemate’s kitten whom we thought had found her way outside for the first time in her life and was instead rescued by another scantily-clad-and-feeling-macho housemate from beneath the floorboards and given a very scratchy bath at 3am. A tad less dramatic, this [...]
‘If You Got a Big Ol’ Butt? Shake It!’ Nicki Minaj’s abortion
I was shocked when the headlines reported Nicki Minaj was ‘haunted’ by a teenage abortion. News of Minaj's abortion was used by the media as anti-choice propaganda
The F-word: a plethora of personal feminisms
Feminism comes in as many shapes, sizes and colours as women themselves
Zhēn de Gender 